Places I've Been: Lisboa
As many of you will know, it takes a lot to get me on a plane. Less now, though, since I've been on so many planes that the mortal panic has receded into more of a general, persistent fear. So I was actually looking forward to climbing on board the 'plane' (or as I like to call it, the death trap) to get to sunny Lisbon! There I could expect to find summer-like temperatures, beautiful beaches and Portuguese women in skimpi bikinis playing beach volleyball (or any other sport that involves a lot of jumping). It was also a steal of a deal, since Jane had a conference and, consequently, accommodations were payed for courtesy of the UK taxpayer. This meant that we would only get one day of sightseeing together, but, as it turned out, that was perfect.
The first sign of trouble was when we were about to touch down. The Captain came on and, amongst rest of the barely recognizable English, I made out something about 'light showers'. 'Rain?' I thought 'in sunny Lisboa?'. Why was the captain giving us a false weather report? Oh well, we'd soon be on the ground, carefree and basking in sunshine (which is sorely lacking in the UK at the moment).
What followed was one of the worst two-day storms in Portuguese history. I managed to find Jane at the conference center OK and then made it to the hotel, but it was all downhill from there. We went out to dinner that night in a rare 'shower lull', but when we left it was pouring! The next day (when I was to explore the city myself) was worse. Lots of rain and wind that made umbrella use inadvisable if not impossible. In any case, that first evening was my first experience with Portuguese food. The portugese seem to like fried steak and pork, especially with an egg on top. But much more than this, they like Butter. Butter goes on everyhting. If you order steak, rice, fries and salad then you will get steak fried in butter, rice with butter on it, fries (deep fried in butter) and salad... with butter dressing. Yum. But at least it's cheap. Lisbon is one of the few remaining european cities in which a typical meal at a typical restaurant will co
st < 10 euro. And they also don't overcharge for seeing the sights. Churches are free (with no 'requests' for 'donations') and national properties (castles, mansions etc.) are only a few euro. Students (Jane and I still have international student cards) are half price. So, in spite of the near hurricane (see right) on the first (full) day I was there I managed to fight my way to an art museum that was near our hotel. And, in true Lisbon fashion, my student card got me in for free. It is billed as 'one of the best art collections in europe', but I'm pretty sire it wasn't. It wasn't bad. Lots of Persian carpets and ming vases along with the paintings, but it was a real hodgepodge of stuff. There were some Greek and roman coins from the region that were pretty cool. From there, I struggled back to the conference center (in the university of Lisbon) to meet Jane for Lunch. To avoid being blown away, we ate at the conference center. I had butter pork, butter vegetables, and rice with butter. Jane had a few more talks to go to after that, so I headed back to the hotel, visiting a real live Portuguese shopping mall on the way (strangely, it was much like every other shopping mall on the planet). That night, we headed downtown for the conference 'Banquet'. We hadn't bought a ticket for me, and we asked if I could order something off of the regular menu, but the maitre'd guy just said it would be easier if they just served me like everyone else. So we were basically cheeky enough to get my meal for free. Sweet. And it was good! The best bit was a fish cake topped with smoked salmon. And thats from a guy who doesn't like fish!
The second day, Jane skipped the conference (and if you had seen the scheduled talks, you would have skipped out too) and we hit the town! It had stopped raining and I was actually getting a hint of the Lisbon I had been hoping for. No one was bikini clad, however. Not even me. In any case, we visited probably the main tourist attraction, which is the Castle of
São Jorge (pictured left), perched on a high hill quite close to the town center. There are some really great views from the top (right) and you can climb around the walls without relying on sissy hand railings or well built stairs. We then hiked across town, passing the shopping district downtown core 
(pictured left) and eventually getting to the city cathedral. We also saw the bohemian 'I'm so artsy and hip' district, which is called 'Barro Alto'. We came in to the area expecting alot of this place, but were kindof disappointed. Maybe if we had seen it at night... The last thing was saw was the Edwardo VII park, which is a very long strip of green running towards the waterfront. The view from the top of the park is below. Note the little castle São Jorge on the left.
In any case, after a long day of walking around, it was time to climb on board the flying death trap again for the trip home. At least maybe I'd be able to get out of the rain.
Happy trails!
The first sign of trouble was when we were about to touch down. The Captain came on and, amongst rest of the barely recognizable English, I made out something about 'light showers'. 'Rain?' I thought 'in sunny Lisboa?'. Why was the captain giving us a false weather report? Oh well, we'd soon be on the ground, carefree and basking in sunshine (which is sorely lacking in the UK at the moment).
What followed was one of the worst two-day storms in Portuguese history. I managed to find Jane at the conference center OK and then made it to the hotel, but it was all downhill from there. We went out to dinner that night in a rare 'shower lull', but when we left it was pouring! The next day (when I was to explore the city myself) was worse. Lots of rain and wind that made umbrella use inadvisable if not impossible. In any case, that first evening was my first experience with Portuguese food. The portugese seem to like fried steak and pork, especially with an egg on top. But much more than this, they like Butter. Butter goes on everyhting. If you order steak, rice, fries and salad then you will get steak fried in butter, rice with butter on it, fries (deep fried in butter) and salad... with butter dressing. Yum. But at least it's cheap. Lisbon is one of the few remaining european cities in which a typical meal at a typical restaurant will co
st < 10 euro. And they also don't overcharge for seeing the sights. Churches are free (with no 'requests' for 'donations') and national properties (castles, mansions etc.) are only a few euro. Students (Jane and I still have international student cards) are half price. So, in spite of the near hurricane (see right) on the first (full) day I was there I managed to fight my way to an art museum that was near our hotel. And, in true Lisbon fashion, my student card got me in for free. It is billed as 'one of the best art collections in europe', but I'm pretty sire it wasn't. It wasn't bad. Lots of Persian carpets and ming vases along with the paintings, but it was a real hodgepodge of stuff. There were some Greek and roman coins from the region that were pretty cool. From there, I struggled back to the conference center (in the university of Lisbon) to meet Jane for Lunch. To avoid being blown away, we ate at the conference center. I had butter pork, butter vegetables, and rice with butter. Jane had a few more talks to go to after that, so I headed back to the hotel, visiting a real live Portuguese shopping mall on the way (strangely, it was much like every other shopping mall on the planet). That night, we headed downtown for the conference 'Banquet'. We hadn't bought a ticket for me, and we asked if I could order something off of the regular menu, but the maitre'd guy just said it would be easier if they just served me like everyone else. So we were basically cheeky enough to get my meal for free. Sweet. And it was good! The best bit was a fish cake topped with smoked salmon. And thats from a guy who doesn't like fish!
The second day, Jane skipped the conference (and if you had seen the scheduled talks, you would have skipped out too) and we hit the town! It had stopped raining and I was actually getting a hint of the Lisbon I had been hoping for. No one was bikini clad, however. Not even me. In any case, we visited probably the main tourist attraction, which is the Castle of
São Jorge (pictured left), perched on a high hill quite close to the town center. There are some really great views from the top (right) and you can climb around the walls without relying on sissy hand railings or well built stairs. We then hiked across town, passing the shopping district downtown core 
(pictured left) and eventually getting to the city cathedral. We also saw the bohemian 'I'm so artsy and hip' district, which is called 'Barro Alto'. We came in to the area expecting alot of this place, but were kindof disappointed. Maybe if we had seen it at night... The last thing was saw was the Edwardo VII park, which is a very long strip of green running towards the waterfront. The view from the top of the park is below. Note the little castle São Jorge on the left.
In any case, after a long day of walking around, it was time to climb on board the flying death trap again for the trip home. At least maybe I'd be able to get out of the rain.
Happy trails!
posted by Derek at 10:34 AM
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